Archive for ‘China alert’

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06/11/2012

* Understanding China’s 18th Communist Party Congress

Reuters: “China’s ruling Communist Party opens its 18th Congress on Thursday, a complicated political coronation that will install the country’s fifth generation of leaders.

Here is how the process works and some pointers to what is at stake in this congress.

AGENDA

– The five-yearly congress elects about 370 full and alternate members of the party’s elite Central Committee in a session lasting about one week, drawing from a pre-selected pool of candidates expected to be only slightly larger than 370.

– The new Central Committee’s first session, held the day after the congress ends, then selects some two dozen members of the decision-making Politburo, again drawing from a list of candidates already selected by the party’s leadership over months of political jockeying.

– The new Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top echelon of power which currently has nine members, will then be unveiled after the one-day Central Committee plenum ends. It is widely expected to be shrunk to seven, facilitating decision-making needed to push through key reforms.

– A series of other appointments will also be made over the congress period, and in some cases before it. These include provincial party chiefs and governors and heads of some state-owned enterprises.

– Vice President Xi Jinping is set to take over as party general secretary from President Hu Jintao at the end of the congress. Xi then takes over as head of state in March at the annual full meeting of parliament.

One uncertainty is whether Hu will also give up his job as military chief. His predecessor, Jiang Zemin, stayed on in that role for two years after stepping down as party chief.

POLICIES

– Hu will give a keynote report to the opening session of the congress, appraising the meeting of the party’s work over the past five years and mapping out challenges ahead for the next five years. Details of the speech remain a closely guarded secret ahead of time.

– The catchphrase in state media and among academics ahead of the congress has been “reform”. China experts say that unless the new leadership pushes through stalled reforms, the nation risks economic malaise, deepening unrest and ultimately even a crisis that could shake the party’s grip on power.

– Advocates of reform are pressing Xi to cut back the privileges of state-owned firms, make it easier for rural migrants to settle permanently in cities, fix a fiscal system that encourages local governments to live off land expropriations and, above all, tether the powers of a state that they say risks suffocating growth and fanning discontent.

– There may also perhaps be cautious efforts to answer calls for more political reforms, though nobody seriously expects a move towards full democracy.

The party may introduce experimental measures to broaden inner-party democracy – in other words, encouraging greater debate within the party – but stability remains a top concern and one-party rule will be safeguarded.”

via Factbox: Understanding China’s 18th Communist Party Congress | Reuters.

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06/11/2012

* Neil Heywood: Briton killed in China ‘had spy links’

No smoke without a fire?

BBC: “A British businessman killed in China had been providing information to the British secret service, the Wall Street Journal newspaper claims.

File photo: British businessman Neil Heywood

Neil Heywood had been communicating with an MI6 officer about top politician Bo Xilai for at least a year before he died, the paper said.

The UK Foreign Office said it would not comment “on intelligence matters”.

In April, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Mr Heywood was not a government employee “in any capacity”.

The case is at the heart of China’s biggest political scandal in decades.

The November 2011 death of Mr Heywood brought down Mr Bo, the former Communist Party chief of Chongqing and a high-flier who was once tipped for top office.

Mr Bo’s wife, Gu Kailai, was jailed in August for the murder of Mr Heywood at a Chongqing hotel. His former police chief, Wang Lijun, has also been jailed in connection with the scandal.

Mr Bo himself was expelled from parliament in September, stripping him of immunity from prosecution. He is accused of abuse of power, bribe-taking and violating party discipline, Chinese state media say, and is expected to go on trial in the future.

via BBC News – Neil Heywood: Briton killed in China ‘had spy links’.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/08/12/bo-xilai-scandal-gu-admits-neil-heywood-murder/

Posted in China alert, Espionage, Politics | 1 Comment »

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06/11/2012

* The Rise of Innovation in China: Failed Western Stereotypes

Rainforest Realities: “In the past few months I’ve had the opportunity at several conferences to speak about innovation and intellectual property in China. I’ve come to realize that outside views about intellectual property in China are similar to common misperceptions about sustainability in this land. I’m glad to share my thoughts because I see huge gaps between Western views of China and the reality that is unfolding here.

Failure to appreciate the reality of innovation in China will lead many in the West to miss huge emerging opportunities. China is moving from a nation of low-cost manufacturing to a nation that relies on innovation and intellectual property. There is much progress still needed, but the changes are dramatic. China has gone from a nation with essentially no intellectual property laws 30 years ago to a nation that now leads the world in patent filings.

It is a nation where a small company in the U.S. can take its patents and trademarks to Chinese courts and win against Chinese companies. This happened recently (April 2012) in Shanghai, when a maker of blow-molded tables from my home state of Utah in the United States was able to enforce both its design patent and its trademark against Chinese infringers.

The growth of China’s intellectual property system from essentially nothing to a bustling, world-class system in so short a time is a dramatic example of what can be achieved in China, and should remind us that old stereotypes about China need to be frequently updated or discarded.

Illustrations from China’s 1313 Book of Farming

Today we are on the verge of a renaissance in Chinese innovation, returning China to a historic leadership role in technology and innovation. This historic role, however, is often not appreciated by the West. For example, many in the West, including eminent scholars, still think that Europe invented printing with movable type, and believe that the first mass-produced book printed with movable type was the Gutenberg Bible. This was a brilliant achievement, absolutely, but it came 142 years after Wang Zhen used movable type to mass produce the mammoth Nong Shu (农书) or Book of Farming in 1313, a beautifully illustrated book of agricultural innovation intended to preserve advanced knowledge from across China to help elevate the nation economically. The book not only describes useful agricultural methods and crops, but also details many mechanical inventions with drawings reminiscent of Leonardo DaVinci’s works.

China’s historic role as a great inventor only recently became available in the West with the publication of Science and Civilization in China by famed British scholar Joseph Needham. His 28-volume work details the Chinese origins of gunpowder, the compass, smallpox inoculation, mechanical clocks, paper money, suspension bridges, and numerous other advances long thought to be Western in origin.

The current rise of innovation now in China is not something new, but a return to ancient splendor. There are those who dismiss innovation in China as something the Chinese just aren’t capable of. That flawed viewpoint is squarely defied by the tide of history. While there were many forces that delayed China’s entry into the industrial revolution and led the modern world to see China as far from innovative, the momentum is shifting dramatically now.

Just as the West has failed to credit China for many past innovations, modern innovation from China doesn’t fare much better. APP’s innovation in sustainability, for example, ought to be evidence to anyone who visits our mills or sets foot on one of our plantations.

The water coming from APP’s mills has levels of purity exceeding accepted standards not just in China but in Europe and North America. Air emissions are remarkably low as well. And many advanced and innovative techniques have been developed in our sustainable plantations to provide high levels of productivity and efficiency —a sustainable model that often goes unrecognized.

There have been remarkable progress and achievements as noted in APP-China’s corporate sustainability report and our innovative Paper Contract with China, where APP is taking a leadership role in China in advancing the sustainability of the industry.

I challenge you to think about what you might have heard regarding sustainability in China and at APP. Just as the West gets a lot of things wrong regarding IP and innovation in China, some of what you’ve heard on sustainability may be incomplete or way off. We hope you’ll take a look and see for yourself.”

via The Rise of Innovation in China: Failed Western Stereotypes | Rainforest Realities.

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06/11/2012

* China leaders consider internal democratic reform

Even if it seems to be somewhat internal, such a move would be the first step towards openness and transparency.  And who knows where that might lead.

Reuters: “China’s outgoing leader and his likely successor are pushing the ruling Communist Party to adopt a more democratic process this month for choosing a new leadership, sources said, in an attempt to boost its flagging legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

A man walks past a logo of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at a media center for the upcoming18th National Congress of the CPC, which starts Thursday, in Beijing November 5, 2012. REUTERS-Jason Lee

The extent of the reform would be unprecedented in communist China where elections for the highest tiers of the party, held every five years, have been mainly exercises in rubber-stamping candidates already agreed upon by party power-brokers.

The Communist Party, which has held unbroken power since 1949, is struggling to maintain its popular legitimacy in the face of rising inequality, corruption and environmental degradation, even as the economy continues to bound ahead.

President Hu Jintao and his heir, Xi Jinping, have proposed that the party’s 18th Congress, which opens on Thursday, should hold elections for the elite Politburo where for the first time there would be more candidates than available seats, said three sources with ties to the party leadership.

The Politburo, currently 24 members, is the second-highest level of power in China from which the highest decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, is chosen.

They are chosen by the roughly 200 full members of the Central Committee which is in turn chosen by the more than 2,000 delegates at this week’s Congress.

Under their proposal, there would be up to 20 percent more candidates than seats in the new Politburo in an election to be held next week, the sources said. It was unclear if competitive voting would also be extended to the Standing Committee.

“Hu wants expanding intra-party democracy to be one of his legacies,” one source said, requesting anonymity to avoid repercussions for discussing secretive elite politics.

“It would also be good for Xi’s image,” the source added.

Xi is considered certain to replace Hu as party chief at the congress, with Li Keqiang, currently a vice premier, tipped to become his deputy in the once-in-a-decade transition to a new administration. Xi would then take over as president, and Li as premier, at the annual full session of parliament in March.

China experts said a more competitive election for the Politburo would mark a historic reform that could lead to surprises in the formation of Xi’s administration, with wider implications for further political reform.

“This is a very, very important development,” said Cheng Li, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“It would provide a new source of legitimacy. It would not just be dark-box manipulation … The party’s legitimacy is so low that they must do something to uplift the public’s confidence.”

However, Li and other experts remained skeptical that the proposal would be adopted, given that it could still be vetoed by party elders or conservatives.

via Exclusive: China leaders consider internal democratic reform | Reuters.

Posted in 10 year leadership change, China alert, Democracy, Good news, Politics, Reform, Transparency | 1 Comment »

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05/11/2012

* ‘Looted’ Chinese antiques pulled from UK auction

SCMP: “Two Chinese antiques have been withdrawn from auction in Britain, the auctioneer said, after the proposed sale sparked fury in China amid claims they were looted from Beijing in the 19th century.

Bonhams issued an apology as it confirmed the two jade carvings would not be sold after the owner withdrew them from a planned auction on Thursday to “avoid any possible offence”.

Picture: Looting of Old Summer Palace by British & French troops.

The planned sale had sparked a furious reaction from Tan Ping, an official at China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage, who labelled it “against the spirit of international conventions”.

“Bonhams is very sorry to read reports in the Chinese press that offence has been caused in China by the proposed sale of two jade carvings,” Bonhams said in a statement received by AFP on Monday.

“There was never in any way an intention to cause offence, and Bonhams regrets that this interpretation has been published.”

Ping previously told state media: “Cultural relics should be returned to their country of origin. We’ll keep a close eye on the matter.”

In its online description of the Qing dynasty jade disc and jade hanging vase, Bonhams said they were “retrieved from the abandoned Summer Palace in Beijing” in 1860.

The Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, was pillaged by British and French military forces in 1860, when Beijing says 1.5 million relics were looted, though it is likely some antiques were sold off by local dealers.

The event is seen in China as a national humiliation at the hands of Western armies. Sales of antiques looted from the palace are widely resented in China.”

via ‘Looted’ Chinese antiques pulled from UK auction | South China Morning Post.

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05/11/2012

* China authorities pushing happiness amid rising discontent

It was the tiny mountain kingdom of Bhutan that started the notion of a Gross Happiness Index. UK’s Premier Cameron had a brief stab at tit. And now the world’s most populous country is having ago.  Maybe it will be taken seriously in due course!

SCMP: “With dissatisfaction growing over corruption, inequality, food safety and numerous other social problems, mainland authorities are shifting their focus from economics to emotions.

Simply put, they want everyone to be happy.

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From Beijing to Ningxia, local, provincial and regional leaders have been setting up “happiness indexes” or otherwise tailoring programmes, projects and policies to increase people’s satisfaction with their lives, as well as, of course, with the government.

Eighteen provinces and more than 100 cities have jumped on the happiness bandwagon in recent years, according to a report in Beijing News last week.

The campaign has helped the Communist Party set the stage for its 18th national congress, which opens this week amid increased incidents of social unrest.

While most analysts welcome the increased focus on people’s welfare, some caution that happiness is hard to measure and suggest the party would be better off advancing concrete policies for social change.

The public has been less forgiving, mercilessly ridiculing the policy on the internet.

“Without a constitutional government and democracy, a ‘Happy China’ will only be a fable,” said Professor Hu Xingdou, who is a commentator at the Beijing University of Technology.

“There are so many things that the authorities could do to improve the public’s satisfaction, such as protecting civil rights, building a democratic country, fighting corruption, stopping illegal land grabs and cutting taxes.”

Reform-minded Guangdong party secretary Wang Yang became perhaps the most prominent – and widely mocked – proponent of the public satisfaction drive last year when he outlined his proposal for a “Happy Guangdong” province.

As part of the plan, Wang allocated 423 billion yuan (HK$521 billion) for projects to improve people’s livelihood. He said he would attempt to reduce the province’s gross domestic product growth from a breakneck 12.5 per cent to a more manageable level of 8 per cent.

To measure his success, Wang set up an index of individual economic indicators, including employment, income, education, health care, crime, housing, infrastructure, social security and the environment.

But Wang was hardly the first to try out such a scheme. His now-disgraced rival, former Chongqing boss Bo Xilai, also pledged to slow the local growth rate after his city was named the mainland’s happiest in 2010.

In Beijing, local propaganda authorities even aired a seven-episode television series in August offering advice to those who are unhappy.

In it, a professor with a psychology degree from Harvard University instructed people on how to find their inner peace, rather than find fault with the government.

Jiangyin city, Jiangsu province, had one of the earliest satisfaction drives. The local government set up its happiness index in 2007, promising to improve the city’s employment, income, public safety and heath care, as well as reducing pollution.

The programme has been a rousing success, if you believe the government’s survey. Within three years, Jiangyin found that 95.87 per cent of its residents felt happy.

Professor Xu Guangjian, of Renmin University’s School of Public Administration and Policy, said he had not seen a single regional government that had been able to convincingly survey the public’s level of happiness. “The factors behind unhappiness are obvious,” he said.

Surveys conducted by Guangdong’s newspapers and government think tanks suggest the main source of most people’s gripes is the government, with many pointing to failures in job creation, social welfare, medical services, housing, pollution, food safety and soaring prices.

And there may be a new source of public dissatisfaction: satisfaction drives.

“It’s very difficult to measure happiness and there’s a subtle growing dislike of the authorities’ overwhelming happiness campaigns,” said Professor Xing Zhanjun, of the Centre for Quality of Life and Public Policy at Shandong University. “The public is starting to mock the word these days.”

Nonetheless, central government authorities have been eager to extend the policy. Many local governments picked up the satisfaction agenda after Premier Wen Jiabao made happiness and human dignity central elements of his 2010 work report.

In the run-up to the party congress, China Central Television (CCTV) has been running a series of segments for it which it conducted 3,500 man-on-the-street interviews in an attempt to measure the mainland’s “gross national happiness”.

Many have dismissed the series as superficial. CCTV reporters simply ask people whether they are happy and an overwhelming majority answer “yes”.

But the segments have not been without their enlightening moments, such as when a reporter pulled one interviewee out of a queue. “I am unhappy because when I answered your question, I lost my place in the queue,” the person said.

Professor Steve Tsang Yui-sang, director of the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute, said Beijing, if it were truly serious about reform, would appoint independent research institutes to survey main obstacles to happiness.

“It can cost as little as several hundred thousand yuan and would be much cheaper than CCTV’s street survey with some 70 camera crews,” Tsang said.”

via China authorities pushing happiness amid rising discontent | South China Morning Post.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Happiness, Social & cultural | 3 Comments »

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05/11/2012

* Is English or Mandarin the language of the future?

BBC: “English has been the dominant global language for a century, but is it the language of the future? If Mandarin Chinese is to challenge English globally, then it first has to conquer its own backyard, South East Asia.

Mandarin-English dictionary

In Malaysia’s southernmost city of Johor Bahru, the desire to speak good English has driven some children to make a remarkable two-hour journey to school every day.

Nine-year-old Aw Yee Han hops on a yellow mini van at 04:30. His passport is tucked inside a small pouch hung around his neck.

This makes it easier for him to show it to immigration officials when he reaches the Malaysian border.

His school is located on the other side, in Singapore, where unlike in Malaysia, English is the main language.

It’s not your typical school run, but his mother, Shirley Chua thinks it’s worth it.

“Science and maths are all written in English so it’s essential for my son to be fluent in the language,” she says.

Continue reading the main story

Robert Lane Greene

Author of You Are What You Speak

The assumption that Mandarin will grow with China’s economic rise may be flawed. Consider Japan which, after spectacular post-war economic growth, became the world’s second-biggest economy. The Japanese language saw no comparable rise in power and prestige.

The same may prove true of Mandarin. The character-based writing system requires years of hard work for even native speakers to learn, and poses a formidable obstacle to foreigners. In Asia, where China’s influence is thousands of years old, this may pose less of a problem. But in the West, even dedicated students labour for years before they can confidently read a text of normal difficulty on a random topic.

Finally, many languages in Asia, Africa and the Amazon use “tones” (rising, falling, flat or dipping pitch contours) to distinguish different words. For speakers of tonal languages (like Vietnamese) learning the tones of Mandarin poses no particular difficulty. But speakers of non-tonal languages struggle to learn tones in adulthood – just ask any adult Mandarin-learner for their funniest story about using a word with the wrong tone.

An estimated 15,000 students from southern Johor state make the same bus journey across the border every day. It may seem like a drastic measure, but some parents don’t trust the education system in Malaysia – they worry that the value of English is declining in the country.

Since independence from the British in 1957, the country has phased out schools that teach in English. By the early 1980s, most students were learning in the national language of Malay.

As a result, analysts say Malaysian graduates became less employable in the IT sector.

“We’ve seen a drastic reduction in the standard of English in our country, not just among the students but I think among the teachers as well,” says political commentator Ong Kian Ming.

Those who believe that English is important for their children’s future either send their kids to expensive private schools or to Singapore, where the government has been credited as being far-sighted for adopting the language of its former colonial master.

Nearly three-quarters of the population in Singapore are ethnic Chinese but English is one of the national languages and very widely-spoken.

Many believe that this has helped the city state earn the title of being the easiest place to do business, by the World Bank.

Continue reading the main story

Lost in translation

Up to 7,000 different languages are estimated to be spoken around the world

Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German and French are world’s most widely spoken languages, according to UNESCO

Languages are grouped into families that share a common ancestry

English is related to German and Dutch, and all are part of Indo-European family of languages

Also includes French, Spanish and Italian, which come from Latin

2,200 of the world’s languages can be found in Asia, while Europe has 260

Source: BBC Languages

Read more about languages of the world

However, the dominance of English is now being challenged by the rise of China in Singapore.

The Singapore Chinese Chamber Institute of Business has added Chinese classes for business use in recent years.

Students are being taught in Mandarin rather than the Hokkien dialect spoken by the older Chinese immigrants.

These courses have proved popular, ever since the government began providing subsidies for Singaporeans to learn Chinese in 2009 during the global financial crisis.

“The government pushed to provide them with an opportunity to upgrade themselves so as to prepare themselves for the economic upturn,” says chamber spokesperson Alwyn Chia.

Some businesses are already desperate for Chinese speakers.

Lee Han Shih, who runs a multimedia company, says English is becoming less important to him financially because he is taking western clients to do business in China.

“So obviously you need to learn English but you also need to know Chinese,” says Mr Lee.

As China’s economic power grows, Mr Lee believes that Mandarin will overtake English. In fact, he has already been seeing hints of this.

“The decline of the English language probably follows the decline of the US dollar.

“If the renminbi is becoming the next reserve currency then you have to learn Chinese.”

More and more, he says, places like Brazil and China are doing business in the renminbi, not the US dollar, so there is less of a need to use English.”

via BBC News – Is English or Mandarin the language of the future?.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Mandarin, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

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05/11/2012

* Premier Wen Jiabao calls for party probe into claims of family’s ‘hidden fortune’

Premier Wen is showing his true colours as a reformist and someone who believes that he is ‘clean’. Let’s hope the results of the investigation are made public so that we can all see how his family grew their fortune however vast or meagre.  This act also shows that he would dearly love to have the long-overdue “sunshine law” – which would require a public declaration of family assets by senior leaders – be finally put into effect.

SCMP: “The communist party leadership has launched a probe into the alleged family wealth of Wen Jiabao at the premier’s request, according to sources.

scm_news_wjb05.art_1.jpg

In a letter submitted to the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body of which the premier is also a member, Wen asked for a formal inquiry into claims made by The New York Times.

A report on October 26 alleged his family had amassed at least US$2.7 billion of assets during his premiership. The Standing Committee had agreed to his request, the sources said.

It is unclear what the inquiry is likely to dig up, or when the results will be published, if at all.

The probe is expected to focus on the family’s alleged shares in Ping An, one of the mainland’s largest insurance companies.

The Times report, citing regulatory filings and corporate documents, said that in 2007 Wen’s family had a US$2.2 billion stake in Ping An.

It also alleged Wen’s 90-year-old mother had US$120 million of shares in the company.

According to the sources, several conservative party elders known to dislike the premier’s more liberal stance have urged him to provide detailed explanations on all the major allegations in the Times report, especially on the Ping An holdings.

Businesswoman Duan Weihong, whose company Taihong was described by the Times as the investment vehicle for the Wen family, told the newspaper she used the names of Wen’s relatives to register the ownership of the Ping An shares.

The party elders argued that this process, which would require registering their official ID numbers and obtaining their signatures, raised immediate questions about how Duan could obtain such personal details without consent from the Wen family.

Wen’s wife and his son have been plagued by corruption allegations for years.

But the family issued a statement, through two lawyers, for the first time on October 27, hitting back at the Times allegations about their “hidden riches” and threatening legal action.

It is unclear whether the family will publish further clarifications or go to the courts.

It is also understood the party elders were “unhappy” about the fact that major overseas Chinese websites – which usually swoop on negative news about the mainland’s top leaders – have carried a barrage of articles supporting Wen, quoting sources close to his family.

According to their reports, Wen had seized the opportunity to demand that a long-overdue “sunshine law” – which would require a public declaration of family assets by senior leaders – be finally put into effect.

He also said he would be happy to make public his family’s assets.

This would appear to be more than just an attempt by the image-conscious outgoing premier to defend his name, analysts say.

They say it shows he is keen to use the inquiry as one last chance to push forward the long-stalled “sunshine law”. Professor Zhu Lijia, of the Chinese Academy of Governance, said: “It is a ground-breaking step towards greater government openness and transparency.””

via Premier Wen Jiabao calls for party probe into claims of family’s ‘hidden fortune’ | South China Morning Post.

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05/11/2012

* Fear over PLA loyalty before party congress sees propaganda frenzy

One would think that in a country with a single ruling party, loyalty to the party and loyalty to the country means the same thing.  But obviously, the CPC is concerned that some soldiers (or more importantly their generals) may see a significant difference between these two loyalties. The mere fact that the PLA is asking the troops to be loyal to the party must mean there is some serious doubt about their loyalties!

SCMP: “A frenzy of military propaganda that started more than six months ago calling for absolute loyalty to the Communist Party stands in stark contrast to the atmosphere before the party congress in 2002, analysts say, adding that it highlights concerns about the army’s stability.

scm_news_plenum03.art_1.jpg

The People’s Liberation Army Daily carried another article on its front page yesterday on the ideological education of the troops, this time written by General Li Jinai, a member of the Central Military Commission and a former chief of the PLA’s General Political Department.

“[We] should strongly oppose the arguments for separation of the army from our party, a politically neutral army or the nationalisation of the PLA and other incorrect political ideas,” Li wrote in the article, first published in the November issue of the party journal Qiushi.

Zhang Lifan , a Beijing-based political analyst, said such unease stemmed from too many “uncertainties” in the leadership reshuffle at this month’s party congress.

“Today’s political uncertainty in the top leadership has never happened since the party came to power in 1949,” he said , referring to the next leadership line-up, which is apparently not finalised even though the congress opens in less than a week.

“And the sense of crisis today over the party’s reign is comparable to the Tiananmen protests in 1989.

“In such a sensitive moment, the loyalty of the army becomes the most important pillar to support the central leadership’s regime.””

via Fear over PLA loyalty before party congress sees propaganda frenzy | South China Morning Post.

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03/11/2012

* From lawyer to leader, Li Keqiang will be best-educated leader yet

For 20 years, the top Chinese leaders were mostly engineers (or scientists).  The president-to-be is Xi Jinping is a chemical engineer by training; and the Premier-to-be Li Keqiang holds postgraduate degrees in law and economics. We shall soon see who are the other members of the central committee of the Politburo and what are their backgrounds. But I am certain engineers will not be in the majority. If I am correct, then as nothing significant in China happens by accident, the shift from engineers to a wider set of backgrounds probably means a shift from concentrating on infrastructure and engineering-oriented enterprises to wider investments and concerns.

South China Morning Post: “The next premier is likely to be the best educated since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, with Vice-Premier Li Keqiang , who holds postgraduate degrees in law and economics from prestigious Peking University, due to succeed Premier Wen Jiabao in March.

a96e6fa6a5510963dc4fc73b018df9db.jpg

At university, Li studied the ideas of leading British judges and mixed with democracy advocates, leading some to hope his premiership will herald significant political change in the world’s last major communist-ruled nation.

Li is the first senior central government leader to hold a PhD in economics and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in law, all earned at a university that was a hotspot of dissent, and his liberal studies background contrasts strongly with the engineering backgrounds of those who have run China recently.

A member of the first group of students admitted to university after late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping ordered the resumption of the university entrance exam in 1977, following the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, Li studied law under Professor Gong Xiangrui , an expert on Western constitutional law who had studied in Britain in the 1930s. Li followed that with a PhD in economics under Li Yining , the mainland’s market reform guru.

Kerry Brown, head of the Asia programme at the Chatham House think tank in London, said Li was the first lawyer to become a member of the party’s supreme Politburo Standing Committee and he would be the first lawyer to become premier.

“He typifies the new leaders inasmuch as he is not a technocrat, has a PhD from Peking University and had a long period of training in the provinces before elevation to executive vice-premier in 2008,” Brown said.

Li is one of the few top leaders fluent in English, surprising observers during a visit to Hong Kong last year when he broke with protocol and addressed an event at the University of Hong Kong in English. His wife, Cheng Hong, is a linguistics professor and an expert on American literature who has translated several modern American works into Chinese.

Brown praised Li for having an engaging public manner, something he said was shown in Li’s visit to Hong Kong last year.

“He is not afraid of using English in public, though the heavy treatment of protesters and journalists at the time caused much criticism,” Brown said.

Most of China’s leaders over the past couple of decades have been engineers-turned-bureaucrats, trained in an education system heavily influenced by the Soviet Union.

But 57-year-old Li, like many of his contemporaries, brings a markedly different mindset to the problems facing the nation.

via From lawyer to leader, Li Keqiang will be best-educated leader yet | South China Morning Post.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/2012/02/18/chinese-leadership-are-mostly-engineers/

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continuously updated blog about China & India